The title is a nod to Chris Marker who was active in the social and political reality of several countries, but was also the creator of a body of work centered on memory. Many of the films in the 2024 Lab competition echo that: they are committed, full of life and totally of their time. The Mexican filmmaker Julio Hernández Cordón brandishes his camera as a way to construct a collective memory, and the way he transmits tales of resistance is masterly, summoning popping, motivated young people. With Los Rayos de una Tormenta, he refocuses debate about the impact of colonialism on his country.

In 1997, René Vautier was a member of the International Jury. An activist for citizen filmmaking and for films with a social impact, he was pleased with those daring films. He made Afrique 50, an anticolonialist tract. He would certainly have appreciated Até Onde o Mundo Alcança by the Brazilian filmmaker Daniel Frota de Abreu who provides a surprising condemnation of the long-term effects of colonialism on Brazil.

Xacio Baño, a passionate Galician director, takes a look at the photographs that we discard as we sift through them. When enough of them pile up, they begin to trace an outline, a map of the imaginary country that exists within us. In Non te Vexo, we arrange, sift through and accumulate signs, and fool ourselves into thinking we’re going to show them to someone.

How would Chris Marker have made use of Artificial Intelligence? It’s a moot question but one that makes you want to watch Level 5 again. In 512X512 Arthur Chopin approaches the zone of immemory that Marker was fond of. Deep in the bowels of AI, he prompted, corrected and regenerated, and the result is both fascinating and terrifying. The same sorts of unexpected things crop up as with more traditional creative approaches. The mix of technology and poetic language takes on a level of interest because it implies subjectivity. You’ve got to be creative!

Bill Morrison is back in competition again after having several films selected at Clermont-Ferrand, directing feature films and being a member of the Lab Jury in 2014. While he has a habit of magnifying the archival aspect of his film, with Incident, he moves out of his comfort zone: using the internet allows him to document and implacably catalogue the police violence that occurred in Chicago in 2018.

Via Dolorosa is both a suffocating plunge into the Jerusalem of director Rachel Gutgarts, and an introspective journey into her life. The film explores her discovery of her sexuality, her addiction to drugs and her intensely graphic and hallucinatory vision of religion. That is how she draws a little-known portrait of her hometown.

The 2023 retrospective dedicated to Taiwan was an occasion to focus on up-and-coming talents such as Pang-chuan Huang. After winning two important awards at Clermont-Ferrand, he is back with Petit cahier de cinéma, where he experiments with different developers for his film; red wine gives a violet tint to the French part of his film. What a lovely way to celebrate his love of film and of our country.

Let’s be honest: 2023 was not an easy year. Some of the people in our International Competition also took one on the chin, and we’d rather laugh than cry about it with them. In the Indonesian director Khozy Rizal’s Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy, a childless couple feels pressured by their family to procreate, to the point that they sing (literally). In Kakor, by Alessandro Stigliano (Sweden), a man decides to lash out at the rigid hierarchy by joining his young fatherhood to his love of pastries in an… unappetizing way. You’re Invited to Tuscan’s 5^th Birthday Party! (US) is another story of blondes and cakes, where a mother tries to reel in the fiasco that her son’s birthday party has become due to a sad story of a pony.

Mother to mother, the same need to open the flood gates. In If You’re Happy, Phoebe Arnstein (UK) sets the stage for a remarkable performance by Erin Doherty, who plays Princess Anne in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown, and here plays a mother struggling with the pressures of motherhood. Another well-known “princess” from our 2024 lineup is Emma d’Arcy who goes from playing Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon to a young stagehand who dreams of becoming the next movie star in The Talent, by the Irish filmmaker Thomas May Bailey. Though families are sometimes a burden, the ones we choose are often a source of solace: in the poignant film Après-coups (Quebec, Canada), women who are victims of domestic violence make “sisterhood” fashionable again. Lastly, the streets of Colombia in Entre las sombras arden mundos welcome a mother who is looking for her son and for a little bit of comfort.  

But let’s talk about movies: some films in the competition captivate through their ingenious use of sequence shots, grabbing the viewer and plunging them directly into the heart of the action, making them a sort of actor in what they’re shown. The Portuguese director Basil da Cunha’s 2720 takes us through the streets of one of Lisbon’s underprivileged neighborhoods, following the fortunes of two characters who pass by each other without ever meeting in the labyrinth of streets and moments of humanity. Et eksempel: Dem på gulvet by Selma Sunniva (Denmark) also talks about humanity: people rubbing elbows in a psychiatric asylum on a day like any other… or maybe not. Animation is continually in motion, leading us from one style to the next. Finland’s Nun or Never! is both classic and very classy, tracing the doubts and dreams of nuns that will blow your cassock off. In Wander to Wonder, we’re happy to see the director Nina Gantz’s silky style again, after she was in competition in 2015 with Edmond: here she unveils the unexpected backstage events of a show for young people that is anything but childish. Lastly, a giant (feline) leap towards the future with Miisufy (Estonia), where a group of digital cats dream of breaking free.

A thirst for freedom is also at the heart of many of our international films, like a never-ending shout. The end of individual freedoms for Afghan women, as seen in Elham Ehsas’ Yellow, where music, colors, laughing and glances cross and resonate one last time before they disappear, behind a veil. The freedom that was lost a long time ago and the freedom that we regain, a little, in a simple shared fruit, as happens in Une orange de Jaffa (Palestine), where a young man tries desperately to find his mother in Gaza. People who think they’re witnessing their own struggle for freedom, their perspective tinged with naivete, as in the exceptional and rare Sudanese documentary, Suddenly TV, which follows a fake TV crew through the streets full of militarism, repression and people on the make. Lastly, from detectives to the frontiers of science fiction (A Black Hole Near Kent County, United States), the faded colors of an Indian river and its inhabitants (Virundhu), and an invasion of grasshoppers that ravage the Italian countryside (Tilipirche), the International Competition is rife with environmental concerns, revealing a collective and necessary consciousness across the globe.

Universal themes spring from the heart of this year’s competition: first love, mourning, unexpectedly healthy encounters, departures that are either eagerly-awaited or prevented, hampered returns… The captivating stories are windows that open onto lives we can identify with, stories that transpose the state of the world in its most abject reality and its most crushing ordinariness, but stories that also resonate deep within each of us. We’ll meet Mr. and Mrs. Everyperson: middle-aged characters who miserably reach a much-deserved but disappointing retirement; invisible people who work the night shift far from the light; free spirits who live like hermits, giving free reign to their fantasies and recording birds; young women trying to move out or to have children; and young men trying to change the world or simply to have a relationship.

Also take note of the variety of animation films – no fewer than ten! Blending fiction and documentaries, they are remarkable for many reasons, not least for the techniques they use: the traditional 2D pen drawings in  Margarethe 89 and the colored pencil rotoscopy of Été 96, the stop-motion on paper cutouts in Father’s Letters, which is having its world premiere here, the several thousand watercolor drawings of La Perra, the digital 3D in the hypnotic film Au 8^ème jour, and lastly, the very rare screen made of pins that is deftly manipulated in La Saison pourpre.

The filmmakers you might meet at the screenings, and most certainly on the streets of Clermont-Ferrand next February, are worthy representatives of what the Festival crew strives to share with audiences: promising young filmmakers, established artists, a few regulars and others who have earned the recognition of their peers. Among the latter category, in competition is 27, a short film by the Hungarian director Florà Ana Buda which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year. Alongside it is La Voix des autres, the first film by Fatima Kaci, a student at La Fémis, which allows us to see the perspective of an interpreter for whom translation becomes a weapon used to help the refugees whose legacies she transcribes. Jean-Benoît Ugeux and Wissam Charaf will also be on hand. The former will present Hiver. We’ve met Ugeux several times both in front of and behind the lens: he is an actor and director who enjoyed the support of the SQP team during a writing residency. The latter is a Lebanese filmmaker who shot his most recent feature film in 2022 Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous and caps his sixth Festival selection with one of the competition’s loveliest titles: Et si le soleil plongeait dans l’océan des nues [If the Sun Drowned In an Ocean of Clouds].

Two French short films stand out: Avec l’humanité qui convient and Ma poule will be representing France in the International Competition. Both are first films made by Kacper Checinski and Caroline Ophelie, respectively, that deal with clear issues and offer completely contrasting atmospheres. One is a suffocating social thriller ably brought to life by a tense Joséphine de Meaux, who is deeply moved by the suffering of an unknown woman; the other shows the outdoor journey of a dreamy man (played by Sam Louwyck) who’d like it if his depressed chicken started enjoying life a bit.

For the first – and, we hope, only – time in its history, the Festival will be reducing the number of programs in its competitions. The National selection will go from twelve to ten programs, and the International from fourteen to twelve.

But make no mistake: reducing the number of films selected does not mean that their overall quality has declined; quite the opposite. Cinematic production has never flourished so abundantly, either nationally or internationally. Cinema’s heart has never stopped beating, and Clermont-Ferrand remains the lungs of the short form.

Therefore it is with great regret that we’ve had to take the necessary step of cutting four programs for 2024. We will make every effort to bring them back for 2025. Fewer programs means fewer films, which in turn means fewer filmmakers on hand to walk our streets, visit local businesses and theaters, meet our audiences who are passionate about the short form, and take advantage of the vast professional resources at the Short Film Market for finding distributors, producers and financiers for their upcoming projects.

All the same, we bet that fans of short film will find what they’re looking for in the nearly seventy programs screening in theaters, for all ages and tastes over the nine days of cinema and celebration.

These circumstances have also had an impact on our box office, which will still be open online; physical points of sale will also be available.

Given the global economic context, we’ve had to adjust our prices, but we’ve tried  to have the smallest impact on our audiences.

Moving forward, single tickets will cost 4.50€ (rather than the 4€ they’ve cost since 2020), while the usual book of fifteen tickets will go up from 35 to 40€ (or 2.70€ per ticket), with the last change in price occurring in 2013.

Despite this adjustment, which we’ve tried to keep as small as possible, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival remains one the most reasonable local, national and international shows in terms of price and an affordable, public event.

Moreover, the tickets in the book of fifteen are not assigned, so you can always share them with your family and friends and go to any screening.*  

* Excluding the Opening, Closing and Children’s screenings, which require special tickets.

In 2014, the Festival began an online daily blog, La Brasserie du Court, a “logbook” that was updated constantly throughout the Festival, hosting written and video interviews with all the filmmakers who had a film in one of the year’s three official competitions. On the one hand, those valuable interviews were proof that the filmmakers really did attend the Festival, and they were also a means to dig deeper into the origins, production secrets and influences on their films. The articles became an indispensable resource over the years, produced by a team of editors, translators and video editors. For financial reasons, we’re putting the blog on hold for 2024, just before its tenth anniversary. We hope to be able to bring back the Brasserie du Court in the coming years. You will of course still be able to consult the interviews from previous years online.

We’ll keep you up to date on all the latest news relating to the Festival through our social media and through this newsletter. Tell your friends and family to subscribe so they get the latest updates too!

22 films from 24 female directors representing 25 countries. The more observant will notice that alongside the 20 European Union member countries, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are also present. This year, our focus is not on a political or geographical Europe, but rather on a cultural Europe – a diverse, kaleidoscopic Europe that is open to the world and deeply rooted in the contemporary era. It’s a Europe that transcends its borders, reflects on its identity, and engages with the global community that has influenced and enriched it for centuries. Among these diverse voices is British-Nigerian director Jenn Nkiru, a fervent defender of feminist causes and her African heritage. A jury member for the labo in 2019, Nkiru’s Rebirth Is Necessary (winner of the CANAL+ Lab Award in 2018) [1] offers an exhilarating audio-visual journey through hip-hop and jazz, exploring Afrofuturism. Her work epitomizes the phrase “Black is beautiful.” European cinema often reflects a world in flux, sometimes revealing its monstrous and grotesque facets. These themes are central to the work of Swiss director Corina Schwingruber Ilić. Since her recognition at Clermont in 2019, Ilić’s All Inclusive [2] has garnered dozens of awards and nearly 300 festival selections. The film criticizes consumerist excesses with humor and without dialogue, inviting viewers to form their own interpretations.

Hungarian director Réka Bucsi also impresses with Symphony no. 42 [3], her Oscar-nominated graduation film. This vibrant and rhythmical composition explores the relationship between humans and nature, oscillating between the absurd and awareness, all imbued with Bucsi’s unique, disconcerting humor. European cinema is also about transforming and experimenting with aesthetics. In Tracing Addai [4], Esther Niemeier reconstructs images and memories to understand a childhood friend’s journey to Syria. The film explores the complexity of shaping and finding meaning in the inexplicable. In Love, Dad (award winner in 2022) [5], Diana Cam Van Nguyen uses a blend of animation techniques (2D, cutout, rotoscoping) to explore a fractured relationship with her father. Letters and images intersect, but never fully reconcile, reflecting the challenges of communication and connection. Thelyia Petraki’s Bella [6] (previously selected in Clermont with Helga Is In Lund) illustrates this theme of a changing world. Set on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it blends documentary and fiction, capturing the vertiginous sensation just before a major historical shift, where both personal and global narratives are on the cusp of transformation.

Europe, through the eyes of women. In the world of cinema, short films often provide a more egalitarian platform compared to feature films. Yet, it remains a challenge for filmmakers, especially women, to be seen, heard, and understood by audiences. This year, Clermont puts them in the spotlight, showcasing a diverse array of cinematic genres. Consider the genre of cinematic storytelling. In Deer Boy [7], a young boy born with deer antlers seeks his place in a family that ostracizes him. The film, without uttering a single word, weaves a realm straddling dream and reality, creating a fantastical and phantasmagorical world. Kaksi Ruumista Rannalla (Two Naked Bodies on a Beach) [8] by director Anna Paavilainen evokes a shared imagination, blending poetry with Lynchian nightmares, echoing themes from war and action movies. In Sorry, Not Sorry [9], Swedish director Julia Thelin draws upon Nordic myths, challenging perceptions of fear and questioning who is the hunter and who is the prey. Between the genres of the too-perfect fairy tale and comedy, Son Altesse Protocole (2022 Télérama National Press Prize) [10] by Aurélie Reinhorn stands out, as she takes us through the hilarious first day of an amusement park employee. But it is above all humanity itself that is reflected in each of the films of this focus.

It is a dive into the intimate and the universal, films turned inward and outward, spanning generations. Oksana Buraja from Lithuania, a two-time winner of the Lab Grand Prix (in 2002 with Mama and in 2004 with Diary), has a knack for touching hearts. In Liza, Namo! (Liza! Go Home!) [11], she immerses us in the world of a girl who builds a protective cocoon to shield herself from the harshness of the adult world. The sharpness of her perspective is as disarming as the beauty of her images. Babičino Seksualno Življenje (Grandma’s Sex Life) [12], an animated work by Urška Djukić and Émilie Pigeard, humorously and poignantly explores a grandmother’s life. It’s a tender portrayal of memories and secrets that comprise every individual.

In Ensom Cowgirl [13] by Danish filmmaker Gina Kippenbroeck, the story revolves around a recent breakup and the struggle to let go, capturing the protagonist’s isolation and pain. Sometimes, however, help comes from unexpected quarters. In the tense Une sœur (A Sister) [14] (also featured in this year’s Thrills section), a phone operator receives a call that will alter her life and that of the caller dramatically.

In 2022, Chantal Akerman’s epic film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, topped Sight and Sound‘s decennial ranking of the 100 best films in cinema history. The result of the vote of 1,600 critics worldwide, it is the first time a female director has topped the ranking, a historic event that marks a profound paradigm shift in the history of cinema. As a reflection of the #MeToo wave and its repercussions, it seems that women are finally being reconsidered in their rightful place, both in front of and behind the camera. Because beyond being a film made by a woman, Jeanne Dielman is first and foremost a film about an apparently ordinary woman. A true cinematic tour de force that, for 3 hours and 20 minutes, makes us endure the slow, dull, and repetitive daily life of a housewife: here, the passing of time is a strong, radical, and committed political act. We enter her skin by experiencing each gesture in its total and cruel duration. Women are no longer these obscure objects of desire: they exist on screen, they take their place in the foreground and claim it.

Sorority first. This feminine noun is borrowed from the medieval Latin soror, which means sister, and then designated a religious community of women. Chloé Delaume⁴ teaches us that the term was brought back to modernity by Rabelais in the 16^th century, who erased its religious aspect to designate “a community of women having a relationship, ties, quality, state of sisters”. In other words, “a horizontal relationship, without hierarchy or right of primogeniture. […] A woman-to-woman relationship, unwavering and solidary.” (Deliberately?) forgotten, sleeping in the dictionary for centuries, it was not until the feminist movement of the 70s that the word reappeared. It is this egalitarian relationship, this tool of power and rallying that we wanted to highlight, first by sharing a foundational film and precious archival document, Y’a qu’à pas baiser! by Carole Roussopoulos [1], which alternates the sequence of an illegal abortion performed by women in an apartment and images of the women’s demonstration in favor of contraception and the right to abortion held in Paris on November 20, 1971. Closer to us, we find in Quebramar [2] this solidarity with a community of young Brazilian lesbians who go to isolate themselves by the water during vacation and literally bare themselves, with kindness and sensitivity, without judgment. In Sister’s Busy Hands [3], three Taiwanese women from two generations struggle daily to provide comfort to the inhabitants of a small seaside resort, through the sweat of their brow and the flexibility of their hands. Finally, in Sestre [4], for their survival and in order not to give in to patriarchal commands that would confine them to the status of objectified women, three friends decide to adopt the precepts of an ancestral Balkan tradition, that of sworn virgins, by making a vow of chastity and adopting an identity, attitude, and masculine clothing to benefit from advantages traditionally reserved for the so-called stronger sex.

Emancipation comes through the body, its discovery, its reappropriation, and finally the right to be able to dispose of it freely, either by exposing it candidly or by fully exploiting it, like a work tool. In Blandine Lenoir’s L’Amérique de la femme [5], sisters, together with their mother, cast aside their masks and delve into sexuality openly and without taboo, driven by a will to share what was previously denied to them. In Kleptomami [6], a young mom caught shoplifting disconcerts the security guard by exposing him to the physical invasions she has had to face due to the impositions of motherhood. With the same caustic humor, the protagonist of End-O [7] vividly details the symptoms and mishaps caused by endometriosis. From these same discomforts, the heroine of Wally Wenda [8] will, with a lot of ingenuity and a touch of cunning, turn them into a strength that will get her out of a very bad situation.

The female body, object of lust, conquest, and curiosity: there are women born in the wrong envelope, relegated to the wrong gender, who fight every day for the recognition of their status; it is the banner carried by the protagonist Shin-mi in God’s Daughter Dances [9], who seeks to escape military service exclusively reserved for men in South Korea. This is also at the heart of the debate in the film Hva er kvinne? (What is a Woman?) [10] which features a violent discussion around the presence of a transgender woman in a women’s locker room: be warned, you will not come out unscathed. Then there are those who fully appropriate their bodies to make a living from it: sex workers. In this respect, the short film by Ovidie and Corentin Coëplet, Un jour bien ordinaire [11] (which gave rise to the series Des gens bien ordinaires), presents us, through the prism of the porn industry, a dystopian universe in which power dynamics are reversed. Enough to open our eyes and shed new and original light on the “ordinary” sexism that governs our daily lives. In Je les aime tous [12], the French actress Corinne Masiero embodies in her flesh and carries the words of the Swiss writer, painter, and prostitute Grisélidis Réal: both a testimony and a plea, here is the list of her desires, the inventory of her clients described via the prism of their fantasies, their physical characteristics, their endurance, a small poetic and clairvoyant parenthesis on the oldest profession in the world. 

The portraits we want to share are mostly strong and positive, but we do not forget those for whom the fight seems unthinkable or abstract. During a trip to Iran, and in animation this time, the director Sarah Saidan will highlight in Beach Flags [13] the absurdity faced by swimmers, such as being deprived of a pool by a certain interpretation of Quranic law. It is not through sport but through art that Beryl, the crazy and endearing heroine of Joanna Quinn in Affairs of the Art [14], will find her catharsis and infect her whole family with the virus of obsessive passion. In Maman(s) by Maïmouna Doucouré [15], it is impossible not to put oneself in the shoes of little Aida, a touching and affectionate girl who endures the heavy burden of traditions against which she can do nothing, for the time being. Egùngùn [16], on the other hand, will allow us to adopt a different angle: what if we distanced ourselves from the weight of family and customs to finally become ourselves, elsewhere, far away. Will this allow us to heal? 

Leaving, that’s the choice Olla [17] made, maybe not to heal, but mainly to undergo a rather dazzling emancipation that conquered (and surely made dance) the audience and film professionals at Clermont-Ferrand in 2020. Sacha and Melissa also decided to forge their own way, zigzagging between the various obstacles, looks and remarks of the men they encounter every day. In ¿Me vas a gritar? [18], Melissa opts for a jam-packed schedule: family life, university curriculum, and wrestling training, while in Super nova [19], Sasha wanders the streets of Marseille, swims in the Calanques, and gives in to romantic dates. These two portraits might seem at opposite ends, but the impression they give off is similar: a feeling of being fed-up coupled with a desire for revolt.

And, if we turn up the dials of weariness and insurrection to the max, we can cross over into provocation and meet La Dragonne [20], interpreted by Dominique Faysse, loud and crude. She will be the vengeance and the answer to all those who have forgotten the notion of consent by harassing women in the street.

Mélody Boulissière & Bogdan Stamatin – Something Divine
A film produced by Marc Faye, who produced Riviera (2018), Trona Pinnacles (2021),
À travers Jann (2022) (Short Film Market Picks section in Clermont)

Tian Guan – The Poison Cat
Director of The Arrival of Aliens (Short Film Market Picks section in Clermont)

Gabb Est

Joanna Major

Lé l’équinoxe

Marthe

Neo Tao

Théo Laguet

Héroïnes (Heroines)

Film posters
La Jetée documentation center
6 place Michel-de-L’Hospital
Clermont-Ferrand
30 January > 29 February
During the Festival:
everyday from 10:00 to 19:00
Outside the Festival:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 13:00 to 19:00
Free entrance

Spotlight on our cinema heroines, the powerful, rebellious women who have lit up the screen!

Women have always been filmed as objects of pleasure, depriving them of power in favour of the male gaze and its desires. Little by little, by taking on the roles of heroines, women are extending into the world of fiction a movement of liberation that is challenging traditional models. Gone are the days of the beautiful evaporate!

Images of liberated, combative, eccentric and powerful women reflect the advances made by feminists as much as the fears they arouse. These heroines become a receptacle for fantasies and projections of all kinds, and set themselves up as models and icons.

Through a selection of original posters, exploitation photos, books and magazines, this exhibition invites you to take a visual journey exploring women’s fascinating, complex and ambivalent relationship with cinema.

Independant artists:

Marie Beaupain
Marc Brunier-Mestas
Léni Champainne
Fabienne Cinquin
Gabrielle Cornuault
Brian Cougar
Franck Fiat
Cécile Gambini
Gabrielle Jimenez
Fred Le Falher
Alicia Lévy
François Mallet
Nina Maurent
Clément Murin
Thierry Toth

Anatomie du labo 16
(Anatomy of the Lab 16)

Plastic arts
Salle Gilbert-Gaillard
2 rue Saint-Pierre – Clermont-Ferrand
2 > 24 February
From Tuesday to Saturday
From 9:30 to 12:30 and from 13:30 to 18:00
Preview: Thursday 1 February at 18:30
Free entrance

In Petit Cahier de cinéma, the new film by director Pang-Chuan Huang selected in the 2024 Lab Competition, we learn that it is possible to develop the film of a short black and white film with wine (it also works with coffee or tea). This chemical operation works because the developer product requires molecules called ‘phenols’ (present in the drinks mentioned above), which are concentrated in the developer products sold, for example, in all photo shops.
It was with this poetic and ecological premise in mind (industrial developers are particularly polluting), and with an unquenchable thirst (sic) for experimentation, that all the participants in the exhibition decided to express themselves by creating works of art: For example, students from the Lycée La Martinière-Diderot (in Lyon, France) responded to the short films selected by designing seven kits inspired by educational toys such as “Safe chemistry – 150 experiments” or “Vanity Case”, which playfully reproduces the dystopian world of the animated film Via Dolorosa by director Rachel Gutgarts.

Anatomy of the Lab is also an opportunity to showcase the work of Clermont-Ferrand’s graphic designers. This year, to name just two, the walls of the Salle Gaillard will host an illustration by Clément Murin (a talented designer and calligrapher from the ESACM – École Supérieure d’Art de Clermont Métropole) and a silkscreen by poster artist Brian Cougar (his favourite subject being music and concerts). You’ll have the chance to see the latter in action at the exhibition opening, when a screen-printing ‘battle’ will take place between Mr Cougar and students from Aurillac’s Lycée Saint-Géraud (France, Auvergne).

Participating institutions :

• Students from La Martinière-Diderot, Diplôme national des Métiers d’art et du design, Spectacle et Matériaux (Lyon, France)
• Students from Lycée Saint-Géraud, bac pro and DNMade graphisme (Aurillac, France)
• Students from Lycée Lafayette, vocational baccalaureate in multi-media visual communication (Clermont-Fd, France)
• Inmates from the Riom detention center (France)
• Art therapy participants from the Sainte-Marie hospital (Clermont-Fd, France)

Kourtrajmé Fabrike
(Kourtrajmé Faktory)

Directors cuts
Galerie Dolet – Crous Clermont Auvergne
25 rue Étienne-Dolet– Clermont-Ferrand
2 > 23 February
Everyday from 9:00 to 20:00
Preview: Wednesday 7 February at 18:00
Free entrance

The Kourtrajmé film schools are opening up their workshops to you, with a “making off” look at their courses and film shoots: photos from the set, working documents, storyboards and moodboards, artwork… All the traces of an inspiring collective adventure, that of students from all over the world, to create together, with kindness and high standards.

The Kourtrajmé film schools offer free audiovisual training open to all, with no diploma requirements, and with the France 2030 label. They respond to the immense challenges of representing the sector, while supporting the creation of original short films. Launched in 2018 by the filmmaker Ladj Ly in Montfermeil, they are carrying out associative and militant research-action, adapting their model to each new territory: Marseille, Dakar, Guadeloupe…

See the Invited Film School programmes.

Le festival s’affiche !
(The Festival shows its colours!)

Official posters
Centre Jaude Mercure Hotel
1 avenue Julien
Clermont-Ferrand
17 January > 15 February
8:00 to Midnight every day
Free entrance

Each year, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival invites an illustrator to design the poster for its next edition. These artists are invited to live the festival experience to the full, as jurors or guests, and to contribute to their work, which will be unveiled the following year. The Mercure Hotel invites you to come and (re)discover the 46 posters that have made the history of the festival, through a retrospective exhibition of original posters and digital prints for the occasion. It’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in the original works of such world-renowned artists in the fields of illustration and animation as Roberto Catani, Marc Craste, Rebecca Dautremer, Blutch, Blexbolex, Rosto, Chris Buzelli, Riccardo Guasco, Dave McKean, Yuko Shimizu, Brecht Evens and Regina Pessoa.

Femme Arkenciel
(Rainbow Woman)

Plastic arts
Formes et couleurs Workshop
Maison des Beaumontois
21 rue René-Brut – Beaumont
2 > 16 February
From Monday to Wednesday from 14:00 to 18:00
Free entrance
formesetcouleurs63.fr

From the projection room at La Jetée to the Formes et Couleurs workshop at the Maison des Beaumontois, the students, with the help of guest artists, have fashioned a treasure trove of individual and collective finds. To share the humour and creativity of their rebellious rambles with the public, an exhibition of drawings and paintings will be on show in the workshop during the festival.

The students have given free rein to their imagination, creating portraits of strong women, rebellious heroines and symbolic attributes of women who have stepped out of the box.

Such’art, parcours artistique (Such’Art, an artistic journey)

Street art
Permanent artworks
2.5 km route through the town center
Clermont-Ferrand
Accessible 24/7 free access

Taking its name from the ancient Auvergne word Suc (meaning Summit), Such’art is an artistic journey through the heart of historic Clermont: galleries, artists’ studios, antique shops and other places encouraging art and creation are all to be found here.
Along the streets, you’ll discover a variety of street art: paintings, graffiti, collages, mosaics, sculptures… More than 150 artists have taken part!
If you’re passing through for the festival, climb up to the central plateau and discover this unique heritage.

Christine Safa – De chair et de pierre
(In flesh and stone)

Paintings
frac auvergne
6 rue Terrail – Clermont-Ferrand
Until 3 March
From Tuesday to Saturday from 14:00 to 18:00
On Sunday from 15:00 to 18:00
Free entrance
fracauvergne.fr
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In flesh and stone, Christine Safa’s first exhibition in an institution, reflects the artist’s sensitive relationship with the world.

Her paintings are born of the recollection of sensations experienced some time earlier, even before the idea of painting had materialised. Sensations of dry heat, of enveloping torpor, of summer heat that numbs the body, of immersion in water that gives everything around a sense of unreality. The artist places these immaterial, fleeting moments on the support before it dries. Drying gives the surface the appearance of solid limestone. The paint becomes stone. The ephemeral becomes sealed, “imprisoned” in the surface.

“In the Autumn of last year I was delighted to receive the commission to create the poster for the 2024 season of Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and to be a juror on the International competition at the 2023 festival. 
It was my absolute pleasure to journey to Clermont-Ferrand, to meet and work with the festival team and most of all to watch many inspiring short films. Quite a few of them have stayed with me long after I had returned home to Los Angeles. I had a lot of rich material to work with. 
Something that struck me while I was viewing these short films was the feeling of being transported. It felt surreal to be out on a cold sidewalk in the middle of February, walking into a crowded cinema and suddenly you are in the bustling city of Taipei, or in the desert of Somalia or the steamy jungles of Colombia. You, the viewer, are on a journey that will take you all over the globe in a short amount of time. I felt lucky to peek into disparate perspectives, to observe tales from a diverse presentation of countries. This idea helped me create the concept for the poster I painted for the 2024 festival. I began thinking about how to recreate contrasting narratives and regions in one space that felt alive and cohesive. 
Much of my work is informed by surrealist painters like Leonora Carrington and Heironymous Bosch — Bosch’s work in particular spoke to me in regards to how to create a scenario built on singularly bizarre vignettes that act in concert to portray a larger narrative. From there I turned to my art book collection and a collection Gardens & Cosmos: the Royal paintings of Jodhpur jumped out at me. What I liked about this style of 16^th century miniature paintings of the Mughal Indian empire is that they were created as documentation of significant events for the emperors because that was the main form of presenting information. 
These lavish scenes appeared in albums and manuscripts depicting battles, legendary stories, hunting parties, wildlife, mythology and everyday life. This varied list resembled the programming of the Festival. A 16^th century and the 21^st century form of storytelling informed the creation of this poster.
Additionally the style of painting in miniature appealed to me because I love to  render small details in my work. I strive to make a composition as visually rich as possible. From the leaves on the trees to the garments worn by the figures, everything works together like musicians in a symphony.  
A connection many of the past festival posters have is featuring something of the region itself. I chose to highlight the Puy de Dôme and the surrounding volcanic mountain range as a row of movie theater seats. The two main spectators are firmly based in Clermont Ferrand while they gaze upon the beauty and chaos of this storybook world unfolding before them. Of course I had to paint the city center and the beautiful, foreboding Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. Many of the small vignettes are pulled from the films I saw in the 2023 season but many of them are surrealistic visions from my imagination. The multilayered composition allows the viewer’s eye to travel down from the top two figures to the cascading scenes below. Each offers the opportunity for the eye to rest on a space and inquire: who are they? What are they doing? Or to enjoy the small patterning or texture on a hillside. Each portion of this poster offers a treat for the eye. These moments stand alone but truly come together with equal parts mystery and humor, much like the collective work of all of the wildly talented directors, actors and production teams showcasing their films.
The festival takes place during a cold, gray month; all of the flowers haven’t bloomed yet and the trees are bare. It’s freezing! Technically Winter is a season of slowness, and of hibernation so I wanted to paint something that would feel alive, and to catch the eye. I work with a lot of color in my paintings so this poster was an excellent opportunity to utilize a vibrant palette. I wanted it to project the magic the festival brings to the city and the viewer and to hint at what excitement awaits them. 
I hope the audience enjoys this poster as much as I enjoyed painting it. It was an honor to create, and to work with the lovely festival organizers who truly believe in the importance of the arts in our communities, and in all of our lives.”

Stacey Rozich, Los Angeles, August 2023

Stacey Rozich is an artist, illustrator and occasional muralist. She constructs situational vignettes that combine elements of folklore, surrealism and American pop culture. Her storybook world is brought to life through lush patterning and symbolism rendered in watercolor and gouache. She was born and raised in Seattle and now resides in Los Angeles.

At the same time as creating this poster, she worked on her first book for children.

Find the poster for sale in the following formats:

– A1 (51.4 x 84.1 cm), portrait and landscape formats

– A2 (42 x 59.4 cm), portrait and landscape formats 

– magnet (7 x 4,5 cm)

– postcards (10.5 x 15 cm) available in portrait or landscape format, plus 8 different versions of vignettes from the poster (available in packs of 10 or individually):